Overview

Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn't let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become an autistic success story, how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover.Growing up undiagnosed in small-town Ontario in the eighties and nineties, Kurchak realized early that she was somehow different from her peers. She discovered an effective strategy to fend off bullying: she consciously altered nearly everything about herself?from her personality to her body language. She forced herself to wear the denim jeans that felt like being enclosed in a sandpaper iron maiden. Every day, she dragged herself through the door with an elevated pulse and a churning stomach, nearly crumbling under the effort of the performance. By the time she was finally diagnosed with autism at twenty-seven, she struggled with depression and anxiety largely caused by the same strategy she had mastered precisely. She came to wonder, were all those years of intensely pretending to be someone else really worth it?Tackling everything from autism parenting culture to love, sex, alcohol, obsessions, and professional pillow fighting, Kurchak's enlightening memoir challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about autism and considers what might really make the lives of autistic people healthier, happier, and more fulfilling.

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9781662075339

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Sarah Kurchak is a writer and retired professional pillow fighter living in Toronto, Ontario. Her work as an autistic self-advocate and essayist has appeared in the Guardian, CBC Radio, and online on Medium, Vox, and Electric Literature. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers, and I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder is her first book. Zura Johnson is a talented actress and audiobook narrator who has performed all around the world. During her five years in Singapore, she worked extensively in voiceover and narrated a documentary for NatGeo Asia. The recipient of a master's degree from The Old Globe Theater and the University of San Diego, she currently resides in Texas.

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